Alien quest is low on Neugebauer's list

'E.T.' fan says we are alone, eyes funding cut

WASHINGTON ? U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer skipped a hearing on the search for intelligent life in the universe last week, but he believes we're alone anyway.

"?E.T.' was a great movie, but it's not real life. I do not believe in extraterrestrials," the Republican from Lubbock said.

Neugebauer, who served as a deacon at First Baptist Church in Lubbock, was silent on how that opinion fits in with his religious convictions, but he questioned whether the federal government should spend money assisting in the search.

"Like any federal program, we have to take a hard look at whether or not there is real benefit to the American people from the dollars spent in this area of research," Neugebauer, who couldn't fit the hearing into his schedule, said in a statement.

The House Science Committee, which Neugebauer sits on, heard from two scientists engaged in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, or SETI.

The hearing lasted about an hour ? short for a congressional panel. It seemed lightly attended, but the HSC chairman called attendance better than average.

The two SETI experts said they haven't found life yet, but there are 1 trillion planets in the Milky Way Galaxy, alone.

Before the hearing, SETI Institute senior astronomer Seth Shostak answered skeptics like Neugebauer: "You might be right, but I think that within 20 years, we're going to prove you wrong by finding life."

Shostak said public dollars don't fund the actual search at the SETI Institute.

The other SETI expert testifying, Dan Werthimer, said publicly funded grants from NASA and the National Science Foundation, as well as private contributions, fund research at the Berkeley SETI Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley, where he's the director.

But the funding fluctuates, causing difficulties, Werthimer, wearing a tie decorated with planets and stars, said after the hearing.

Unlike other scientists and Environmental Protection Agency officials who've come under attack in HSC hearings, the two SETI experts were almost treated like rock stars.

U.S. Rep. Lamar Smith, the HSC chairman, was enthusiastic about the hearing, "Astrobiology and the Search for Life in the Universe."

"It is a subject that does fascinate," Smith said. "Who would not be curious about whether there's life elsewhere in the universe when you look up at the stars at night, for example?"

The Republican from San Antonio said he scheduled the hearing partly in response to the public's interest and partly in response to a legitimate and growing field of research.

What about skeptics like Neugebauer who don't think there's any other life in the universe?

"That's the question, and no one can answer one way or the other to that," Smith said.

Washington correspondent Trish Choate can be reached at 202-408-2709 or Trish.Choate@Scripps.com. Follow her on Twitter at Trish_in_DC.